The Financial Times today launches Collateral Damage, a commentary series on monetary policy and central banks that will run for two weeks in the newspaper and on FT.com.

Over the last five years, central banks have played a pivotal role in the shaping of the global financial crisis. The Federal Reserve, the Bank of England and the European Central Bank each had to intervene in order to prevent a deeper economic depression in their regions. Collateral Damage will look beyond quantitative easing and will tackle the question: what’s next for monetary policy?

Assanka, the web and application development company acquired by the Financial Times in January 2012, has officially rebranded as FT Labs.

The FT’s acquisition of Assanka supports the Financial Times’ strategy of delivering world class journalism anywhere, anytime, on any device, with new digital products and services that engage our busy readers.

The Overseas Press Club (OPC) of America honoured the Financial Times and ProPublica’s Tax Wars series with the 2011 ‘best online investigation’ prize in its annual awards ceremony in New York last night.

OPC award judges “were impressed by this illuminating account of how banks took advantage of gaps in two countries’ tax laws and how the US government lost billions in the process. The four part series also delved into how a simple rule change, meant by the US treasury to cut paperwork, turned into one of the biggest international tax breaks around. Interactive graphics and charts made this four-part series even more compelling.”